Hey, Izzo! (AP: Conroy)Even before today's 61-57 victory over Wisky it appeared the Buckeyes were on the inside looking out.
Afterward, there's no doubt the Buckeyes are headed back to March Madness after a one year layoff.
Evan Turner led the way once again with 19 points and Ohio State used a 14-3 run to secure a date with Michigan State tomorrow at 1:40pm.
Regardless of what happens versus MSU, the Buckeyes got what they'd been looking for - balanced contribution - as virtually everyone stepped at one point or another.
Running through the game with Corey over some barley soda's, there was much to take away including:
- Dallas Lauderdale emerged from the milk carton to add eight points, five rebounds and four blocks.
- Matta switching to the press with OSU down 54-47 with 6:03 to play helping jump start the decisive 14-3 Ike.
- Jon Diebler coming through with two clutch triples including a deep dagger putting OSU in front 55-54 with 2:25 remaining.
- P.J. Hill getting to the line 11 times (hitting 7) while fellow PG Jeremie Simmons added 10 points in 16 minutes.
- Wil Buford hit a couple big buckets early in the second half as OSU struggled to score.
The much maligned zone also did its job holding Wisconsin to 36% from the floor, 31% from deep, while holding the Badgers to zero field goals over the final 6:03.
Logic says the Spartans will be ready to play tomorrow but it better be a genuine desire to play or else the Buckeyes might steal one. You gotta like Thad's post-season record, at the very least.
We're keeping it brief tonight since Matta's crew takes the court less than 16 hours. Stay tuned...
Comments
I hope OSU can keep the momentum going against Sparty.
The trend is for the top teams in a conference to be disinterested in the conference tournaments ( as they should be ) so OSU has a good chance tomorrow. Maybe the Big 10 could be a trendsetter for once, and be the first major conference to abolish its conference tournament that we have known all along to be superfluous, and go back to home and home round robin conference play.
As much as we would like for it to happen, it never will.
It's more likely that we'll go the way of the ACC and not even recognize a regular season champion, just the tourney champ.
I don't know, I live in Big 8 ( 12 ) country where the conference tournament was a well loved ritual for years and years and there is talk this year about how Kansas actually helped itself by losing, so that they are more rested going into the real tournament. Maybe not in the next few years, but I think more and more people across college basketball are coming to realize the post season conference tournament is pretty meaningless when you get right down to it.
awesome pic of Matta
Yeah, i GUESS i agree